Why every weekend should be a 3-day weekend

National holidays that fall on a Monday shouldn't be the only
reason Americans get three days off.

It should happen every week, simply because it's the right thing
to do.

Over the last several years, a number of companies around the
world have made the switch to a shortened workweek, Amazon being
the most recent example.

The world's second-largest retailer announced
on August 26 that a select group of part-time employees would
soon only need to work 30 hours per week to earn 75% pay and full
benefits.

It's too early to know for sure, but there's a good chance those
employees will feel more passionate about their jobs and get more
done than the
people working twice as long.

Consider the research of K. Anders Ericsson, one of the top
experts on the psychology of work. (His research led author
Malcolm Gladwell to devise the
10,000-hour rule, the idea that experts need at least 10,000
hours of practice to master a given craft. However, Anders
has since criticized the rule.)

Multiple experiments done in Ericsson's lab have shown that
people
can commit themselves to only four or five hours of
concentrated work at a time before they stop getting things done.
Past the peak performance level, output tends to flatline, or
sometimes even suffer.

"If you're pushing people well beyond that time they can really
concentrate maximally, you're very likely to get them to acquire
some bad habits," Ericsson
told Tech Insider in May. What's worse, those bad habits
could end up spilling into the time people are normally
productive, and suddenly even the shorter weeks are wasteful.

Put into practice, shortening the work week seems to reap all
kinds of rewards.

Ryan Carson, CEO of the technology education company Treehouse,
has seen his employees become happier and more productive since
he implemented the 32-hour work week back in 2006. Core to
Carson's leadership philosophy is the belief that forcing people
to work 40-hour weeks is nearly inhumane, he
told the Atlantic last year.

"It's not about more family time, or more play time, or
less work time — it's about living a more balanced total life,"
he said. "We basically take ridiculously good care of people
because we think it's the right thing to do."

A similar story is playing out at Reusser Design, a Midwest
web development company that changed to a
four-day week in 2013. Even though the company works longer
hours to make up for the lost Friday, company founder Nate
Reusser says productivity and engagement have never been
better.

"You wouldn't believe how much we get done," he told CNN
last year, adding that the policy motivates people to work
harder, similar to how people hustle to finish projects before
they go on vacation.

Joe Rubin, human resources expert and co-founder of the
recruiting site Crowded.com, tells Business
Insider that Amazon's new policy is also a win because it's bound
to attract new talent.

With a 30-hour workweek, Rubin says, new mothers and people
with other obligations can maintain a stable work schedule
without needing to take a long leave of absence or work
inconvenient hours. By offering employees more flexibility,
Amazon sends the message that life outside of work
matters.

Some evidence suggests the solution isn't even in working fewer
hours, but in how companies allocate people's time.

Former Utah governor, Jon
Huntsman.Michael Brendan Dougherty
for Business Insider

In 2008, in the middle of America's financial crisis, former Utah
governor Jon Huntsman implemented a plan to reorganize the work
week.

With only a month's heads-up, nearly 75% of state employees
changed from working five eight-hour days to working four 10-hour
days.

On the one hand, the extra day off saved public resources that
were normally used to heat, cool, and power the buildings — a big
win when cash was tight.

But the change also produced increased worker morale. People
enjoyed the extra day off and the easier commutes, since they
were no longer slogging through rush-hour traffic.

So while psychologists and work-life consultants might not know
where the sweet spot of productivity exists, or if it's the same
spot for everyone, the
evidence suggests you shouldn't need 40 hours to get there.

For maximum productivity, people should stay mindful of
when they start to feel burnt out. For everyone's sake, it might
be time to cut back on clocking in.